The present invention relates to position-adjusting devices, and also to distance-measuring devices for measuring the distance between two objects. The invention is particularly useful with machine tools for measuring the distance of a machine tool from the workpiece, and is therefore described below with respect to this application, but it will be appreciated that the invention could advantageously be used in many other applications.
In automatic control of machine tools, it is necessary to fix the starting position of the machine tool a predetermined distance with respect to the workpiece so that all the instructions to the machine tool and/or workpiece can be based on this starting or reference position. At the present time, the measurement of this initial position of the machine tool with respect to the workpiece is usually done manually and is therefore a slow, cumbersome and error-prone operation which significantly slows-down the machining of workpieces.
An object of the present invention is to provide a position-adjusting device for adjusting the position of an adjustable member with respect to another member, e.g., a housing to which the adjustable member is mounted. Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for measuring the distance between two objects in an improved manner. A further object of the invention is to provide a distance-measuring device which is particularly useful with machine tools for measuring the distance of the machine tool from the workpiece.